


S6 E17 A Good Day

by JDPostEpisodeChallenge



Series: Josh & Donna Post Episode Challenge [46]
Category: The West Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 15:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16162097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JDPostEpisodeChallenge/pseuds/JDPostEpisodeChallenge
Summary: Post Ep by SupernaturalMondler





	S6 E17 A Good Day

Josh opened the door.

“Oh,” Josh looked at his watch. “It’s late. I didn’t think you were coming.”

“I had to finish something up with Will,” Donna explained, shouldering him past him and into his apartment when he stood aside.

“Of course you did,” Josh didn’t even bother to conceal his eye roll.

“Josh,” Donna scolded, collapsing on the couch.

“I know, I know,” Josh raised his hands in surrender. He stopped in the kitchen on the way to the living room to grab a couple of beers from the fridge before joining her on the couch. As soon as he sat down she pivoted so that her legs were resting across his lap and reached for one of the beers. He gave it to her and they clinked their bottles together before taking a swig.

“So,” Josh began after they had been quiet for a minute. “Did you talk to Cliff today?”

Now it was Donna’s turn to roll her eyes. “Does it matter?”

“I think it’s okay that I take an interest in you and any conversations you have with an ex-boyfriend,” Josh defended.

“Okay, first of all, he was never my boyfriend. We went on like two dates. And second of all, are you telling me that you never talk to Amy?”

“Not willingly,” Josh grumbled, but he conceded the point.

“Yeah, we talked for a bit,” Donna finally admitted. “He asked when I’d be back in town to catch up.”

“And?”

“And I told him when I’d be back.”

“Donna,” he whined in response.

“Josh,” she mocked back.

“This isn’t funny, Donna!” Josh protested with a pout. “It’s bad enough that I hardly get to see you anymore, it’s not fair if you start spending all your free time with attractive political-operative ex-boyfriends.”

“Oh my god you’re actually serious!” Donna laughed. “Honey, are you jealous of Cliff?”

“No!”

Donna nudged him with her foot, smirking knowingly.

“I’m not!” Josh exclaimed. “I might have been a little bit jealous the first time but I’m not now! I just—” He paused and sighed, focusing his attention on her legs, still splayed across his lap. His hand not holding a beer started gently rubbing her ankles in an impromptu massage. 

“Josh, you know there’s no reason to be jealous, right?” Donna asked softly. Josh just shrugged, his gaze not leaving his lap as he attempted to play it casual. Donna could see straight through him. “Josh,” she tried again to get his attention, shaking one of her feet slightly to indicate that she wanted him focused on her face. “You have nothing to be jealous of, okay? You won, you got me, you’re my boyfriend now.” She set her drink on the floor and pulled her legs away from him so that she could crawl closer and take his hands in hers. “If it really bothers you that much, I won’t see him when we get back.”

“It’s fine,” Josh said absently, eyes now directed towards their joined hands. They both knew by his tone that it wasn’t exactly fine, but they weren’t going to be able to fix his (surprisingly many) insecurities in a night, so Donna decided to drop it for the time being, hoping that it was enough that she was there with him now.

“This thing, that Santos came up with,” Donna changed the subject to something a little bit more in their comfort zone. “Do you think it’ll actually work?”

“I don’t know,” Josh admitted. Then his face shifted into a slight grin. “But what a crazy win if it does.”

“I went back in there, after I finished with Will,” she told him. “I had to grab my coat. Everyone else was asleep, except for Santos and that Congressman from Arkansas, the one who’s thinking of voting against the bill.” Josh hummed in acknowledgement and pulled her closer, so that Donna was almost sitting in his lap. “He’s a good man, Josh. Anyone can see that. He’s got good morals, and good convictions, and if this thing does work, well,” she huffed out a laugh, “he’s making a pretty good case for ‘strong leader’.”

Josh looked up at her with a playful gleam in his eyes. “Donnatella Moss,” he asked, “are you thinking of switching sides?”

Donna sighed. “You know I’m not.”

“You should.”

“Josh, I can’t,” Donna emphasized. “We’ve been over this. You know why I have to do this myself.”

“I don’t though,” Josh argued. “If you know he’s the right man for the job, why are you wasting your time on someone everyone knows is wrong?”

“Santos is still a distant third, Josh,” she reminded him. “You don’t even know if your campaign will make it through the month. Like him or not, Russell’s still the party frontrunner. Besides,” Donna added when it looked like Josh would interrupt her, “I need to do something with my career that doesn’t depend on yours. Especially if we’re going to do this,” she gestured to the way they had curled closer together on the couch as they talked. “I can’t live my entire life in your shadow.”

“I know you’re right,” Josh admitted. “But I miss you. I feel like I’m so much better when I have you with me.”  
Donna pulled his head down to her shoulder to stroke her fingers through his hair. “You’re doing amazing, Josh. I think this is good for you too. You’re better than you realize. I’ve always known it, the President and Leo know it, and it sounds like Matt Santos must know it too, if he’s crazy enough to pack up and follow you around the country.”

“He’s not following me anywhere,” Josh smiled. “The Congressman’s calling the shots here, I’m just along for the ride.”

“He wouldn’t be here without you, and you know it,” Donna responded. “You made it happen Josh. And you don’t need me to do that. And that’s a good thing. It means that now when we come home at the end of the day, we don’t have to worry about being boss and assistant. We can just be us.”

Josh lifted his head to grin at her. “I like us.”

Donna smiled back at him and kissed his nose. “I like us too.”

“I like us better when we’re not on opposite sides of the country all the time though.”

“It won’t always be like this,” Donna reminded him. “We just have to get through this year of campaigning, then we’ll see where we end up.”

That was an overly-simplified way of putting it; there was so much that could go wrong before November, and even more that could go wrong while they were campaigning for opposing sides. They had made it work so far, but they both knew the toughest times were yet to come for them.

“Yeah,” Josh agreed with a sigh. He wrapped an arm around her waist to hold her closer and allowed himself to just breathe her in for a while.

“Want to get ready for bed?” Donna asked softly. “We have to be back early tomorrow to help your guy save the world.”

Josh huffed out a laugh and pressed a gentle kiss to her neck. “Yeah. Let’s go.”


End file.
